Donald Trump has had himself one heck of a week, but it looks like his wife will have her time in the spotlight as well. Questions have risen concerning Melania Trump’s immigration to the United States.
One of Donald Trump’s biggest campaign issues has been immigration, and his threat to build a wall and keep illegal Mexican immigrants out of the U.S.. But critics were quick to point out that his wife herself is an immigrant and his rhetoric seemed a bit off. Melania has gone on record to claim her situation is different because she followed all the proper steps to come here:
“I follow the law. I follow the law the way it’s supposed to be. I never thought to stay here without papers. I have visa, I travel every few months back to the country, to Slovenia to stamp the visa. I came back. I apply for the green card. I apply for the citizenship later on after many years of green card. So I went by system.”
But Politico reports how an early (and explicit) photo shoot — which has recently been resurrected by the New York Post — tosses a wrench into Melania’s claimed timeline. Trump originally said she came to the U.S. in 1996 with the intent of being a model, the Post claims the Manhattan photo shoot happened in 1995.
Trump’s timeline gets a little more confusing because if she had an H-1B visa — which could could be extended to six years and is carried at all times — she would not need to return to her home country of Slovenia to get her visa stamped. If her description of events is correct, she would most likely have a B-1 Temporary Business Visitor or B-2 Tourist Visa. If someone came to the U.S. with one of those and the intention to work, it would constitute as visa fraud. Andrew Greenfield, a lawyer who specializes in immigration law, told Politico there are so many hoops to jump through when it comes to immigration, and Trump slipping up with her answer seems odd:
“If Melania was traveling to the U.S. on a B-1 business visa, there is a potential problem,” said a Washington-based partner of a major national immigration law firm. “She would not have been authorized to work in the U.S. while on a B-1 visa. In fact, if a customs agent encounters someone entering the U.S. on a B-1 visa and they know that the individual intends to work for a U.S. employer, the individual will usually be denied admission. In order to avoid being sent back to Slovenia, she may have had to lie about the purpose of her trip.”
The whole situation brings into question whether Trump was lying or just slipped up because of her broken English. But the situation, on top of her personal website expunging her claimed academic career, seems odd.
UPDATE: Melania just made a rare Twitter appearance to “set the record straight.” In this statement, she claims to have been “at all times been in full compliance with the immigration laws of this country.”
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) August 4, 2016
(Via Politico)